Google users running out of date browsers were in for a shock at the weekend when the site showed the 2013 version of Google which lacks many of the new and updated features. Those affected were mostly those running Safari 5.1 and Opera 12, although this was left un-announced until it spread it’s way across the Google forum.

Many users originally believed it may have been a bug, attempting the clearance of cookies, extensions and add-ons, however for most, the only solution was to re-configure the browser in order to trick Google into thinking it was a more recent version. Search results appeared in the most up to date format however other aspects of the site were left in the old format, leaving users short of modern functions that they would normally have had access to.

Google finally explained to users on the forum that their Google page was working as intended in an attempt to encourage users to upgrade their browsers. Despite being heavily criticised as being heavy handed, Google already announced years ago that Gmail would soon be unavailable to older browsers. With the regular updates that are being made to Google, there is only limited support that they can provide for old browsers if they are to continue improvements to the site.

2 thoughts on “Google Discourage The Use Of Old Browsers”

But I think Google has long since morphed into the same big corporate entity hiding behind anonymity, which it always denies. So I suspect most every decision taken by Google has a commercial motive, possibly but not always evil. An engineer or even a group cannot make a change with this sort of wide ramifications without okay from the corporate higher ups. So it seems obvious this change has nothing to do with technical specifications and everything to do with herding users onto Chrome. (Eg, over the years it has occurred to me that possibly why Google makes it impossible to rename folder names on Google Bookmarks is that they are trying to force users onto Chrome whose bookmarks can be “synced” and all this user information shared with advertising marketers.)

If Google’s competitors cannot see this as an open door to promote something better that a lot of users want (and more would, too, if they understood), that’s their problem. Talking to you, Mozilla!

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It would appear that many leading firms such as Google are all becoming very commercial
Although updates for bug fixes may not always be supported for older software, the question of privacy and data protection then becomes a question.
Although many of our favourite firms make improvements to create a better user experience, money through adverts and the selling of user data appears to a priority for most as of recent. This is where the new social network Ello comes in, making a stand against the misuse of data